Gmail is one of the most widely used webmails around the world. But, now people have started moving to Office 365 for better productivity and convenience. And there are some good reasons behind it.

Need to Migrate Gmail to Office 365

There are several situations that require migration of Gmail mailbox to Office 365. Some of the main reasons include;

• Less space in Gmail for managing emails and other data.
• Message and folder organization in Gmail.
• Managing multiple E-mail addresses with Gmail.
• Working in offline mode with Gmail is clumsy.

How to Migrate Gmail to Office 365?

There are generally two manual ways to migrate a Gmail mailbox to Office 365, and both these methods require configuring your Gmail account in Outlook.

Connect your Gmail account to Outlook >

With this technique, you’ll able to see your old and new emails in Outlook. However, the email messages will be stored in Gmail account. So, if you want to keep using your Gmail account, then opt for this method.

Import copy of your Gmail messages to Office 365 account >

Using this method, you can copy all your Gmail emails to Office 365. But, this method is only beneficial if you do not want to use your Gmail account anymore.

Both these methods interrelate to each other. First, you need to configure your Gmail account with Outlook, and then you can import copy of Gmail emails to Office 365 mailbox. Follow the steps below to perform these methods:

Note: Before performing these steps, make sure you have Outlook app on your system, and you have logged in with your Office 365 credentials.
Configure Gmail Account in Outlook

1. Open Outlook on your system, go to the “File” tab and select “Add account.”
2. A new page “Auto account setup” will appear on the screen. Select “Email account,” enter your name, your Gmail address, and password, and then click “Next.”
3. It will take a few seconds to configure your Gmail account with Outlook. Once done, click “Finish.” Outlook will sync all your Gmail data, and your Gmail account will appear in the left pane of Outlook.

Once your Gmail account has been configured in Outlook, you can export this data in Outlook data file format. Follow these steps to do this.

1. Open Outlook, go to the “File” tab and click “Open & Export.”
2. Now, in the “Open & Export” tab, select “Import/Export” option. A new window will appear on the screen. Select “Export to a file” from the menu and click “Next.”
3. In the next step, select “Outlook data file” and click “Next.”
4. Now, select the Gmail account to export it to an Outlook data file. Also, don’t forget to check the box “Include subfolders” and click “Next.”
5. Select a location to save the PST file on your system and click “Finish.”

Note: If you want, you can assign a password to the PST file or leave the password boxes empty.

Copy Your Gmail to Your Office 365 Mailbox

Now, you can import the saved PST file to your Office 365 mailbox. This way the PST file can be used with your Office 365 mailbox easily.

1. Open your Outlook, go to the “File” tab and select “Import/Export” in the “Open & Export” section.
2. In the new wizard, select “Import from another program or file” and click “Next.”
3. Choose “Outlook Data File” from the opened wizard and click “Next.”
4. Now, browse the PST file that you have created for your Gmail data and click “Next.”
5. Now, select “Import items into the same folder in” and select your Office 365 mailbox and click “Finish.”

Outlook will copy the data from the PST file. Also, if you disconnect from the Internet or shut down Outlook, it will continue the process the next time you’re connected. Once all the emails are synced with Outlook, you can access them in your Office 365 mailbox from any platform.

After importing your PST file to Office 365, you can remove the Gmail account from Outlook.

Limitations of Manual Method

There are some limitations to the manual method, which can cause problems in migrating Gmail data to Office 365, such as:

• The migration process is very complicated and difficult.
• It is a time-consuming and lengthy approach.
• You can only migrate emails with the manual method.
• Sometimes Outlook shows error when you try to auto-configure Gmail with Outlook.

Alternative Method – Kernel IMAP to Office 365

If you want to avoid the hassle of migrating Gmail account to Office 365, then Kernel IMAP to Office 365 is an alternative option for it. This tool can help you migrate emails from Gmail to your existing Office 365 account. Follow the steps below to understand its process.

5 Steps total

Step 1: Download and launch the tool on your system. A window will appear on the screen, select “Add” under “Add Source” from it.

Step 4: Once the destination is added, you’ll find a migrate button on the tool, click the “Migrate” button. Also, you can set filters like Item type, date, folders, deleted items, etc.

Step 5: The tool will take a few minutes to migrate all your emails to Office 365, and once it is completed, a message will appear on your screen, “Process completed. Save the report to CSV.” Click “OK” to save the report.

Migrating IMAP mailboxes to Office 365 is very complicated as manual methods are lengthy and time-consuming. But, with the help of Kernel IMAP to Office 365, you can quickly migrate you emails to Office 365 from IMAP mailboxes.